UAE has 175 clinical studies recruiting or active, Zavis monitor shows
Industry sponsors 46.9% of active UAE studies, and 34 include phase 3, according to the Zavis GCC Clinical Trials Monitor.
How Zavis verifies this coverage
Editorial standards, source rules, methodology, and review provenance are public.
Key findings
- 175 UAE studies are recruiting or active now
- Industry sponsors 46.9% of active UAE studies
- 34 active UAE studies include phase 3
- 15 UAE studies were first posted in the last 90 days
- ART Fertility Clinics LLC leads sponsors with 18 active UAE studies
A gene therapy given in Abu Dhabi has freed a patient from transfusions, The National reported. The report is a prompt to look at the UAE's wider clinical research pipeline, and the public registry record gives a measured picture of it.
What the data shows
The UAE has 175 studies recruiting or active now, according to the Zavis GCC Clinical Trials Monitor. The monitor tracks studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, the public registry run by the US National Library of Medicine, that list at least one site in a GCC country. Of the UAE studies, 93 are recruiting now. Across all time, 621 studies have listed a UAE site.
Saudi Arabia records 1,779 studies all time and 385 recruiting or active now. Qatar has 52 recruiting or active, Oman 48, Kuwait 37 and Bahrain 7.
| Country | Studies (all time) | Recruiting or active now | First posted in last 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | 621 | 175 | 15 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,779 | 385 | 43 |
| Qatar | 269 | 52 | 5 |
| Kuwait | 220 | 37 | 5 |
| Bahrain | 69 | 7 | 3 |
| Oman | 149 | 48 | 12 |
New studies keep arriving. Zavis analysis shows 15 UAE studies first posted in the last 90 days and 6 in the last 30 days. The six recent studies include a real-world study of semaglutide sponsored by Novo Nordisk A/S, a study of a robotic system for diagnostic colonoscopy sponsored by Neptune Medical, and a study of mass-casualty prehospital emergency response led by Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
| Study | Lead sponsor | Phase | Registry ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospective Study on Antimicrobial RESIstance in Chronic Pulmonary DiseasE | Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico | Not stated | NCT07874139 |
| Student-Centred Simulation-Based Skills Training on Coping Self-Efficacy, Stress, and Anxiety Among Nursing Students in the UAE | Universiti Sains Malaysia | Not applicable | NCT07871539 |
| Real-World Patient and Physician Experience With Semaglutide Across Six Emerging Markets | Novo Nordisk A/S | Not stated | NCT07850765 |
| Classical and Heavy Metal Music Effects on Stress Among Medical Students | University of Sharjah | Not applicable | NCT07848503 |
| Mass-Casualty Incident - Prehospital Emergency Response | Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences | Not applicable | NCT07838441 |
| Triton 1.5 Robotic System for Diagnostic Colonoscopy in the Middle East | Neptune Medical | Not applicable | NCT07835542 |
Late-stage studies are a smaller group. Of the active UAE studies, 34 include phase 3, including combined phase 2/3. Phase 2 accounts for 9 and early phase 1 for 1. The two largest groups are "Not applicable", with 65 studies, and "Not stated", with 60.
| Phase | Studies |
|---|---|
| Not applicable | 65 |
| Not stated | 60 |
| Phase 3 | 27 |
| Phase 2 | 9 |
| Phase 2/Phase 3 | 7 |
| Phase 4 | 3 |
| Phase 1/Phase 2 | 2 |
| Early phase 1 | 1 |
Industry sponsors 46.9% of active UAE studies. The lead sponsor with the most active UAE studies is ART Fertility Clinics LLC, with 18, followed by Gulf Medical University with 14 and AstraZeneca with 12. Sanofi has 10 and Abu Dhabi Health Services Company has 5. Infertility and "Infertility, Female" head the list of most-studied conditions in active UAE studies, with 5 studies each. Multiple sclerosis follows with 4.
| Sponsor | Active studies |
|---|---|
| ART Fertility Clinics LLC | 18 |
| Gulf Medical University | 14 |
| AstraZeneca | 12 |
| University of Sharjah | 11 |
| Sanofi | 10 |
| Abu Dhabi Health Services Company | 5 |
| Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences | 5 |
| AbbVie | 5 |
| Hoffmann-La Roche | 5 |
| Novartis Pharmaceuticals | 5 |
By site, ART Fertility Clinics LLC appears in 14 active studies, Gulf Medical University in 11 and University of Sharjah in 10. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi appears in 7, Burjeel Medical City in 6 and Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in 5.
| Site | Active studies |
|---|---|
| ART Fertility Clinics LLC | 14 |
| Gulf Medical University | 11 |
| University of Sharjah | 10 |
| Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi | 7 |
| Burjeel Medical City | 6 |
| Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City | 5 |
| Al Qassimi Hospital | 5 |
| Novartis Investigative Site | 5 |
| Tawam Hospital | 4 |
| Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) | 3 |
What it means
For hospital operators, the site table shows where active research sits today: a fertility clinic group, universities and large hospitals. Operators planning research programmes can use these counts as a benchmark for their own activity.
For investors and insurers, two figures are worth tracking: the 46.9% share of active studies sponsored by industry and the 34 active studies that include phase 3. Taken together, they can serve as a gauge of how much drug and device makers use UAE sites for their research.
For patients, a news report about one patient does not show whether a therapy is offered more widely. Anyone interested in a study can look up its registry ID on ClinicalTrials.gov and check whether it is recruiting before contacting the listed site.
Two limits apply. Not every trial run in the region is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, and one study can count for several countries.
Sources
Zavis Intelligence Team
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